Associated Press: Multiple People Shot Outside Empire State Building

[patrick1]

What if someone in the crowd had a gun? Obviously it's pointless with you guys, I just want to make a note.

They probably would have gotten themselves and others killed.... It is not some dopey tourists' job to police the streets.

[patrick1]

You watch too many movies, Vosem.  Cops are not omnipresent but they are not omniscient either. It would be excellent if cops had full situational awareness but that just isnt the case.  In this instance, the guy went up and blew his old co-worker away.  Some civ that is armed would have done nothing to stop this. Someone who tried to apprehend the suspect by drawing on the guy would have made them a target to a responding officer in a fluid situation.  More importantly the well meaning vigilante also makes everyone around him a target because cops can and do miss and bullets like to bounce around even on egress from a body. 

There is a reason most big city police unions support gun control and it is not the stuff of some paranoids' fantasy.

[patrick1]

Does anyone have some hard facts to show we are actually getting more shootings or is it just they are getting more media coverage?

Sadly, I think it might have more to do with the new and exciting venues.  Movie theater, Sikh temple, near major landmark- all breaking new ground for active shooters and thus breaking news  Today, if some dude just shot his old boss in Peoria it would not have gotten much coverage, imho.